"It was 1999 when I got my first taste of the inner-workings of a major record label - I was a young college student, and the inside of a New York label office seemed so vast and exciting. Dozens of worker bees hummed away at their desks on phones and computers. Music posters and stacks of CDs littered every surface. Everyone seemed to have an assistant, and the assistants had assistants, and you couldn't help but wonder "what the hell do all these people do?" I tagged along on $1500 artist dinners paid for by the labels. Massive bar tabs were regularly signed away by record label employees with company cards. You got used to people billing as many expenses back to the record company as they could. I met the type of jive, middle-aged, blazer-wearing, coke-snorting, cartoon character label bigwigs who you'd think were too cliche to exist outside the confines of Spinal Tap. It was all strange and exciting, but one thing that always resonated with me was the sheer volume of money that seemed to be spent without any great deal of concern. Whether it was excessive production budgets or "business lunches" that had nothing to do with business, one of my first reactions to it all was, "so this is why CDs cost $18..." An industry of excess. But that's kind of what you expected from the music business, right? It's where rock stars are made. It's where you get stretch limos with hot tubs in the back, where you get private jets and cocaine parties. "

"For the major labels, it's over. It's fucking over. You're going to burn to the fucking ground, and we're all going to dance around the fire. And it's your own fault. Surely, somewhere deep inside, you had to know this day was coming, right? Your very industry is founded on an unfair business model of owning art you didn't create in exchange for the services you provide. It's rigged so that you win every time - even if the artist does well, you do ten times better. It was able to exist because you controlled the distribution, but now that's back in the hands of the people, and you let the ball drop when you could have evolved."

"I hadn't given much thought to SXSW before arriving, and didn't have many expectations. My first experience of the place was waiting in line for "registration" with hundreds, maybe thousands of other musicians. It was the most bedraggled, poverty stricken, drugged out, greasy bunch of insecure losers I have ever stood in a line with, and they were all arrogant to boot. Now this is a sad situation. We were all standing in line, waiting to be tagged, cows at the feed lot waiting for the slaughter, each one fighting to be first in line. Soon as we got our indestructible and unremovable non-transferrable space age bracelets fitted to our skinny wrists, the competition began! Oh my lordy me oh my.

And of course the music didn't matter. At all. We were all wearing earplugs and stumbling around blindly in search of comfort and relief from the 90 degree heat. Targets and sitting ducks. Water was scarce, so we drank a lot of beer. And somebody is making money here, I can see it and feel it. But none of it is going into the hands of musicians. This is indie rock in 2009. I see."[F]

"Hermas Zopoula, the youngest of 36 siblings, was born the small village of Yoro in Burkina Faso, West Africa. His family is the descendent of the Sissali griot Gouaka Djoua, and it is from him that Hermas has inherited, “the voice of the musicians.” While the rest of Burkina Faso’s musical youth have been out chasing the latest trends in hip-hop, reggae, and “musiques chaudes,” Zopoula has been crafting his balance of traditional songwriting with a more modern vision since he was old enough to hold a guitar. Zopoula incorporates the guitar, balafone, and female back-up singers to write very personal and powerful songs of redemption and hope in the midst of struggle."[F]

And we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Aliright don't worry even if things end up a bit to heavy
we'll all float on alright
Already we'll all float on
Ok don't worry we'll all float on
Even if things get heavy we'll all float on
Don't you worry we'll all float on
All float on